By Janice I. Dixon
Janice I. Dixon is a freelance writer. She may be reached by e-mail at jid24@columbia.edu.

January 4, 2002

WHEN THE Citylights cooperative apartment complex at Queens Landing welcomed its first residents in 1997, it was an oasis in a residential desert.

Today, the 42-story luxury high-rise in the Hunters Point section of Long Island City is a popular alternative to Manhattan and an architectural anchor for a blossoming residential enclave along the western Queens waterfront.

Before moving to the high-rise, Jan Latus, 41, lived for six years in a studio in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. His monthly rent was $400.

"It was the only part of Manhattan I could afford," Latus said. "I didn't have many options."

Proximity to the New York City office of the Polish Daily News, where Latus is editor, was important to him. After Latus was selected as one of the winners of Citylights' initial applicant lottery for moderate-income residents, he got a loan from friends to help him purchase his third-floor apartment for $11,800. Today, comparable Citylights' apartments are on the market for about $120,000, he said.

The life at Citylights includes spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline - it is, across the East River from the United Nations. It has 24-hour uniformed doormen, an on-site health club complete with sauna and daily aerobics classes, video rental in the full-service laundry room, an outdoor deck with tennis courts for summer use, an adjoining parking garage (for an additional monthly charge ranging from $113 to $249), and easy access to Manhattan across the Triboro Bridge or via the No. 7 subway.

And while the 521-unit building is helping to spur a residential renaissance in Long Island City, it is only the leading edge of a wave of overall renewal. Citylights is a part of a $2-billion master plan for the commercial and residential development of 1.5 miles of Queens West waterfront, with a total of 6,000 units planned in 15 residential buildings to be constructed in the area, according to Michael Marr, spokesman for Queens West Development Corp., a subsidiary of Empire State Development Corp.

Just south of Citylights, the Bay Riverview building is under construction. Initial occupancy of the 372 rental units is scheduled for April. A full-service grocery story also is envisioned for the area, Marr said, and four commercial buildings are planned.

"Development of Queens West offers wonderful residential and employment opportunities for New Yorkers," Marr added.

When Shampa Chanda, 37, an architect with the New York City Department of Planning, first saw the neighborhood in 1996, "it was a dead industrial area, there was nothing happening," she recalled.

Chanda was generally familiar with Long Island City, having studied the Hunters Point section for her college thesis work at City College of New York. At the time, the area was dominated by old factories and warehouses, with a few residential buildings along Vernon Boulevard.

During the time that Citylights was under construction in the mid-1990s, Chanda and her husband, V.S. Mani, decided to purchase a property there. They were living in a large, two-bedroom, two-bath apartment on Manhattan's East Side and wanted as much room-and more-for a library and for relatives visiting on extended stays. So they bought two upper-floor units at Citylights and combined them.

Today, Chanda, a director of the co-op board, enjoys exploring other Queens neighborhoods. The adjustment was initially more difficult for Mani, 37, an Internet company employee. At first, the neighborhood was too isolated, he said, but now he enjoys the reprieve from the hectic environment of Manhattan.

On a recent Saturday morning, the marble-floored Citylights lobby is bustling with tenants laden with packages, children and pets. Clad in sweat clothes and a baseball cap, Georgette McGriff, 26, starts out to walk her dog. While crossing the lobby from the elevator to the front door, she is stopped several times by neighbors who want to chat with her and frolic with her poodle. McGriff does not mind the delay.

"The people here are great," she says.

Outside of the building, the immediate commercial offerings are limited. For groceries, Citylights residents shop at small stores on nearby Vernon Boulevard or trek to Astoria, Jackson Heights or Williamsburg. That was to be expected.

"All of us knew that we were going to be pioneers when we moved here," said Eric Allemano, 53, an education and human resources management consultant for the UN.

But basic city services are well in place. The City- lights building at Queens Landing is just a few blocks away from the New York City Police Department's 108th Precinct. And PS 78, also known as the Robert F. Wagner Jr. School for Art and Technology for pre-K through 5-year-olds, is a ground-floor tenant at Citylights.

"I saw this as a growth area," said Alex Wolf, 35, a City Lights resident who is a broker for Manhattan-based Whitehall Realty and has handled a number of resales at the building. "And for someone in the real estate industry, it's good to be in an area where development is getting started."

Wolf is a repository of Citylights facts: The building has an 88-percent owner-occupancy rate; maintenance fees-ranging from $500 for studios to $2,600 per month for two-bedroom, two-bath apartments-are 63 percent tax-deductible. He also points out the local cultural assets, such as the Gantry Plaza State Park at the waterfront, with its four piers, including one reserved for fishing; the Socrates Sculpture Park; and the "Soho-like" City Lights Grill on Vernon Boulevard.

"Everyone benefits from the master plan," Wolf said. "Everyone in the area enjoys the waterfront and nearby homeowners are seeing their property values increase."

And some of the Citylights' residents are veteran homeowners who have seen much of the city reinventing itself.

For instance, co-op board president Edward L. Sadowsky, 72, and his wife, Jean, are empty-nesters who were looking to downsize from their home in Beechurst, where they had lived for 30 years. So when Sadowsky, a lawyer and former chairman of the New York City Council Finance Committee, and Jean, a retired journalist, discovered City lights, they decided to buy in, combining two units on the 39th floor.

"I used to tell people I was moving to an industrial slum," Sadowsky said. "I called myself an urban pioneer," he said. Today the values are up significantly, and the board is in a strong financial position, enabling it to make capital improvements, he said. Moving to Citylights was a "very, very sound decision."

Sadowsky's sentiment echoes that of co-op director Chanda.

"The first couple of months I wasn't very happy," she said, somewhat overwhelmed by the industrial environment. Then she began to appreciate the development of the open space in the area and the great views of the city.

"Now," she notes, "we look out of our windows and say, 'Wow.'"

Under Construction Along the Riverside

Just south of the Citylights residential cooperative in Long Island City, phase two of the Queens West Development Corp.'s master plan for residential development is under construction along the 1.5-mile East River waterfront.

When complete, the 32-story brick building with its glass facade will offer 372 rental units and 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, development director Will Kim said. Additional amenities will include a full-time concierge, a clubhouse overlooking the waterfront (complete with kitchen for resident use), a 2,000-square-foot exercise room with cardiovascular fitness and weight-training areas, and a business center with fax machines and computers for tenants, he added. A putting green on a half-acre landscaped terrace also is planned.

The project, known as Avalon Riverview, is privately financed, developed, and managed by the Manhattan office of AvalonBay Communities Inc., a Wilton, Conn.-based developer specializing in high-end rental properties in the Northeast since 1993. AvalonBay is well known for pioneering upscale rental complexes amid established bedroom communities on Long Island, including Smithtown, Melville, and soon, Glen Cove.

"As we started to move into the metro New York area, we tried to pinpoint areas on significant public transportation routes," Tracey Applebaum, vice president, said. AvalonBay also manages rental properties in New Jersey, Connecticut and in Westchester and Rockland counties, according to Applebaum.

Riverview's leasing office opens in February and initial occupancy is set for the end of April. The developer expects to attract individuals employed in Manhattan with average incomes of $100,000 to $150,000 per household to rent the studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, and duplexes.

"It's unusual to get people with Manhattan residential addresses to move to Queens, but Citylights has proved that can happen," said Fred Harris, AvalonBay's vice president of development.

The rental rates for Riverview have not yet been finalized, Applebaum said.

Avalon Riverview (http://www.wirednewyork.com/queens/queens_west/avalon.htm) under construction in September of 2001. The building on the left is Citylights (http://www.wirednewyork.com/queens/queens_west/citylights.htm).

The Rockrose project (I think about 7 buildings) should be great whenever that's finally going. Does anyone know is there are any solid plans for Office space in QW? *Also, I know the 3 Avalon Bay buildings (Riverview, and 2 others) are rentals. *I hope there are more co-ops and condos built (like Citylights) to really let residents have a stake in the neighborhood. *Any word on the balance of rental v. ownership? *Thanks

yanni111

January 10th, 2003, 05:39 PM

billyblanco you should go to www.queenswest.com
their forums are mostly of residents or people who are interested in living in the buildings, they know the news on new construction

Kris

September 24th, 2003, 01:45 AM

September 24, 2003

Newest Pepsi Challenge: Save the Sign, but Don't Blind the Tenants

By DAVID W. DUNLAP

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/09/24/nyregion/24peps.jpg
Seven apartment towers will replace Pepsi-Cola's old bottling plant on the East River in Hunters Point, Queens. But the famous sign, visible from Manhattan, will be saved.

Pepsi-Cola is the spot.

The Rockrose Development Corporation has acquired the land along the East River in Hunters Point, Queens, where Pepsi-Cola was once bottled, which is still heralded by a 120-foot-long ruby-red sign. Rockrose plans to build 3,200 apartments in seven crisply colorful towers on the 21-acre property.

Construction is to begin next year, but will not permanently displace the 67-year-old Pepsi sign, an all-but-official city landmark. Its swashes, curlicues and 50-foot soda bottle will form the offbeat signature piece of the $1 billion Rockrose project, within the larger Queens West development site, a 74-acre residential and commercial complex.

"We think we can arrange the apartment layouts within so that no one looks directly into a letter," said Jon McMillan, director of planning at Rockrose, which is controlled by the Elghanayan brothers — K. Thomas, H. Henry and Frederick. "People can point from Manhattan and say, `I live behind the hole in the P.' "

The Rockrose project will be distinct in other ways. Instead of constructing traditional-looking masonry buildings, Rockrose plans multifaceted towers, one up to 390 feet tall (about 40 stories), equal in height to the nearby Citylights tower. The first building will have a gridiron facade of white metal and gray and red brick. The design is by Arquitectonica, the architects of the multicolored Westin New York at Times Square.

On completion, the project will have 3.5 million square feet of space, including a 100,000-square-foot middle school. The buildings will flank a curving road to be known as Center Boulevard, along a four-block stretch of riverfront north of 47th Road. Those on the river side will abut the waterfront park, which is being designed by Abel Bainnson Butz. "You will live in the park, not across the street from it," Mr. McMillan said.

Nearly two-thirds of the acreage will be open space: parks, landscaped areas, streets and sidewalks. The buildings will occupy slightly more than one-third of the site. Rockrose plans to construct one building a year.

Mr. McMillan said he expected the project to attract those who work in Midtown and cannot afford a similarly tranquil Manhattan oasis. To the extent that conditions can be predicted in 2005, when the first building opens, he said rents would probably be 20 to 25 percent less than those across the river. Some of the buildings may be condominiums, depending on market conditions.

Rockrose estimates that it will pay $100 million to prepare the site: $65 million to the Queens West Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation, to construct bulkheads, streets, parks and utilities; $20 million to PepsiCo for the property; and the rest to meet planning, design and financing costs.

"It is further evidence that even in a less-than-stellar real estate market, Queens West continues to be a hot property," said Charles A. Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, in a prepared statement.

The transaction closed Friday and was described yesterday by the participants. Rockrose bought the land from PepsiCo but the title transferred directly to Queens West, which is leasing seven parcels back to Rockrose for 99 years at $1 a year. PepsiCo donated 11.65 acres of waterfront land worth tens of millions of dollars, said Dave DeCecco, a spokesman for Pepsi-Cola North America.

A key element in negotiations has been the fate of the Pepsi-Cola sign, which was constructed in 1936 and rebuilt in 1994 by the Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation. "That sign is part of our history and part of the history of New York," Mr. DeCecco said.

Pepsi moved its bottling operations out of Hunters Point in 1999. But it maintains the sign and will continue to do so, on its own 60-by-200-foot plot, roughly where the sign now stands. The sign is to be dismantled this month and moved 300 feet south. In 2005, it would be re-erected in its permanent setting.

Although the sign is not an official landmark, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has kept an eye on it since 1988, when it was considered for designation. The commission chairman, Robert B. Tierney, said yesterday that PepsiCo had been "excellent stewards of this well-loved sign," which he called "an iconic part of our cityscape."

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

enzo

September 24th, 2003, 05:17 AM

Awesome news!

old renderings from http://www.queenswest.org/homeframeset.html
http://www.queenswest.org/pictures/rockroseskylineboardnight2.jpg

http://www.queenswest.org/pictures/rockrosesitemodel.jpg

enzo

September 24th, 2003, 05:21 AM

http://www.queenswest.org/pictures/rockroseboard3a.jpg

http://www.queenswest.org/pictures/rockroseboard4a.jpg

http://www.queenswest.org/pictures/rockroseboard5a.jpg

Edward

September 24th, 2003, 10:35 AM

Seven apartment towers will replace Pepsi-Cola's old bottling plant on the East River in Hunters Point, Queens. But the famous sign, visible from Manhattan, will be saved.

I can't wait. One of the most exciting projects in NYC. Nice to see Rockrose went with some creativity in the design and not just blah brick. These are gonna be scooped up quickly. Condos should sell pretty fast, I would think.

billyblancoNYC

September 24th, 2003, 12:00 PM

BTW, if the rendering is a go, which it seems to be, 5 of the towers look comparable in size to the 390 ft. height mentioned. Could be higher, but I'm not gonna complain.

TLOZ Link5

September 24th, 2003, 12:41 PM

QueensPort should look nice when it's finished, as well.

Gulcrapek

September 24th, 2003, 03:17 PM

A bit of the Netherlands in NY.

Kris

September 24th, 2003, 03:26 PM

The site has quite a few more images: http://www.queenswest.org/stage2.html

krulltime

September 24th, 2003, 03:31 PM

Alright! This is a super for Queens!!! I can't wait to see this development in action.

Is this a change? I thought that the only other building of that size was going to rise at the southern end of Queens West. Either way, this is great news!

billyblancoNYC

September 29th, 2003, 10:02 AM

7 apt. towers to pop up

Plan no longer bottled up, &amp; soda sign is saved

By DONALD BERTRAND
www.nyDAILYNEWS.com STAFF WRITER

Soft drink sign, an unofficial landmark on the Queens side of the East River, will be dismantled but later restored as developer spends $1 billion converting former bottling plant into site of 3,200 Queens West apartments.

The developer of the northernmost portion of the Queens West site in Hunters Point has announced plans to start building the first of seven towers on the 21-acre site next August.
The $1 billion project, planned for property previously owned by Pepsi-Cola, is noted for the massive Pepsi-Cola sign that faces the East River and has become an unofficial landmark.

That sign will come down during construction but it will be restored under an agreement by the three parties involved in negotiations that took years to complete.

"This is an enormous project, extremely complicated - three parties were involved: Pepsi, [developer] Rockrose and the [state] government," said Jon McMillan, director of planning at Rockrose Development.

"We had to figure out how to do it without the government spending any money, because they did not have any," McMillan said.

He explained that Rockrose had to acquire the property from Pepsi, but Queens West had to end up with the ownership title.

McMillan said the developer then had to transfer title to Queens West and come up with the funding mechanism to pay for all the infrastructure, the park and the bulkhead repairs.

The deal came together Sept. 19, McMillan said.

"It is further evidence that even in a less-than-stellar real estate market, Queens West continues to be a hot property," said Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corp.

In February 2001, Queens West announced that Rockrose was selected as the developer of the site, which is north of 47th Road on the waterfront.

The project calls for 3,200 apartments in seven towers.

At that time, McMillan called the selection process - which took about a year - "one of the most arduous selection processes I've ever been involved in."

Across river from UN

Queens West is a $2.3 billion residential and commercial development project covering 74 acres at Hunters Point in Queens, directly across the East River from the UN complex.

The first Queens West building - a tower, called City Lights, with 522 co-op apartments - was opened in 1997; a second tower, the Avalon Riverview luxury rental tower, was opened last year.

Two more portions of Queens West are awaiting development, said Alex Dudley, a spokesman for the Empire State Development Corp.

A residential area at the southern tip of the property has been earmarked for an Olympic village, in case the city is awarded the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, and there is a commercial core just south of the Avalon Riverview I apartments.

Originally published on September 29, 2003

NoyokA

October 13th, 2003, 08:17 PM

Its been a couple of years since the surrounding infastructure has been in place, and now finally demolition is underway and right up to the sign. The Park at Queens West has been extended too, I welcome the greenery! This will become my favorite part of Queens West, unfortunately for now the park is only open to the geese. This area extending to and including the crab-house will have alot of character.

NYatKNIGHT

November 18th, 2003, 12:53 PM

Behind the Pepsi sign - the view of Manhattan from there is spectacular.

That CityLights building is really something. It took a little while before I really started to appreciate it, but now I really enjoy it.

billyblancoNYC

March 2nd, 2004, 02:12 AM

I like the lit roof the best. I just want this to really start moving already. It's been over a decade for Christ's sake.

I just keep picturing taking the Circle Line. The new West Side, from BPC to Trump Place, then Jersey City, then the new WTC, then the new Downtown BK and Ratner-Land, then (hopefully) the new East Side a la BPC, then the new Williamsburg/Greenpoint Waterfront, then the Con Ed site, then Queens West.

When Pepsi-Cola erected its big red neon sign in Long Island City, along the Queens side of the East River, in 1936, ships would steam up to the plant below it and unload sacks of sugar from Havana. Soda hasn’t been bottled there for five years now, and the plant is being torn down this month to make way for a high-rise apartment complex, so the sign—unofficial landmark and longtime beacon to local residents, film location scouts, and drunken taxicab passengers on the F.D.R. Drive—has to move. Over the past few weeks, it has migrated, letter by letter, from the plant’s roof to a site on the ground, three hundred feet to the south.

Each morning, as a group of riggers dismantled the logo, Vera Lutter was watching. Lutter is a forty-four-year-old artist who moved to the city from Munich eleven years ago. “They work very, very fast, much faster than I thought,” she said the other day. “Since Monday, they took the bottle, the P, E, P, S, the I—and the hyphen. And today they set their hands on the C in ‘cola.’”

Lutter was observing the proceedings from inside a twenty-foot-long wood-frame shack that she built on the factory’s roof. She calls it a camera obscura, and it’s modelled on the optical devices used by Renaissance artists as a drawing tool; it’s basically a giant pinhole camera. Sunlight streams through a two-millimetre opening on one side and projects an upside-down, reversed image of the Pepsi sign onto the opposite wall, where each morning Lutter drapes three big sheets of photosensitive paper. The light burns the image into the paper, which Lutter then takes down and develops and assembles into a single fifteen-by-eight-foot photographic print at her studio, in Manhattan. The prints make up a series that she calls “The Deconstruction of Pepsi-Cola.”

She takes only one picture a day, because each print needs up to three hours’ exposure. The workmen don’t stand still long enough to register as fixed images, but the camera captures ghostly traces of their labors. “With the Pepsi bottle, I was able to get four different shades of gray as they moved it away,” she said over the low-frequency hum of a portable generator, which powers a space heater and a red safelight.

Lutter had already rolled up her daily exposure, but when she switched off the safelight what was left of the sign appeared as a projection on the back wall. As the eyes adjusted, other details emerged: the river; the United Nations; the Chrysler Building, its needle pointing at the ‘O’ in “cola.” “Isn’t it exciting?” she said. “When I first saw an image projected like this, I just thought I was seeing God.”

That occurred in 1993, in a twenty-seventh-floor loft in the garment district, when she turned the place into a camera obscura to record the odd, pleasing shapes on the neighboring rooftops. “I had no intention of doing this more than once,” she said. “But I’ve done very few other things since.”

The Pepsi sign wasn’t visible from Lutter’s loft, and a couple of years passed before she noticed it, riding home one night from a party in Williamsburg in the back of a pickup truck. After lobbying Pepsi for two years to gain access to the roof, Lutter built her camera obscura there in July, 1998. During that summer, she produced her first prints of the sign.

When the new apartment complex is finished, the sign will move again, to a permanent, elevated spot along the waterfront. Though the sign has been good for Lutter’s career—the Whitney Museum and the Dia Center for the Arts have exhibited her Pepsi-Cola prints—she has no plans to photograph it again. Reflecting on the more than five years that she has spent on the site, she noted that the Queensboro Bridge is just a few blocks away, and recalled a passage from “The Great Gatsby”: “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.”

Edward

April 9th, 2004, 12:35 AM

The Rockrose Development Corporation has acquired the land along the East River in Hunters Point, Queens, where Pepsi-Cola was once bottled, which is still heralded by a 120-foot-long ruby-red sign. Rockrose plans to build 3,200 apartments in seven crisply colorful towers on the 21-acre property. March 2002.

Pepsi moved its bottling operations out of Hunters Point in 1999. But it maintains the sign on its own 60-by-200-foot plot, roughly where the sign now stands. The sign is to be dismantled and moved 300 feet south. In 2005, it would be re-erected in its permanent setting. February 2004.

How tall are the buildings going to be? And also I just returned from NYC and I was wondering what is that ONE really tall buidling in queens? It really stands out from the ESB observatory.

TLOZ Link5

April 14th, 2004, 02:24 AM

The tallest residential tower will be around 390-420 feet high.

The tall building you're asking about is the Citicorp Long Island City building. It's essentially overflow space and a backup office, and is the tallest building on Long Island. Around 660 feet, 50 stories.

Did you enjoy your trip? Details! :D

NewYorkYankee

April 14th, 2004, 05:41 PM

Yes, we loved our trip, this is def. where I will be attending college, and living! :-D!

Situated within a new high-rise residential development, this branch library will provide a public amenity for the entire neighborhood. The building is situated on New York's East River, opposite the United Nations, offering postcard views of the Manhattan skyline.

Located at the boundaries of the new housing development and Gantry Plaza State Park, the building mediates between urban and landscaped areas, presenting a planted roof, a true "fifth elevation" to the hundreds of residential apartments overlooking the site. The roof will be designed to collect storm water runoff, minimize reflected heat and require minimal maintenance or irrigation.

The one-story building rises up along the major avenue, creating a high street wall. At the south and west sides, deep structural fins frame views towards the river and control sunlight penetration into the reading areas. A glass-screened reading terrace, offers views while providing protection from the wind and sun.

The planted roof, natural day lighting and ventilation, an efficient mechanical plant as well as recyclable, locally produced building materials follow sustainable "green" architectural practices.

www.dattner.com

krulltime

April 21st, 2004, 07:24 PM

Interesting... :o

ischeong

April 24th, 2004, 12:03 AM

I heard that the Schwartz Chemical Factory was recently sold. Any idea what it will be used for by the current owner?

Archit_K

April 24th, 2004, 07:55 AM

Queen West is going to look good. It's developing it's own skyline.

NoyokA

April 24th, 2004, 10:17 AM

I heard that the Schwartz Chemical Factory was recently sold. Any idea what it will be used for by the current owner?

I would like to see the building preserved, but its hot real estate, Im sure it'll make way for something else.

billyblancoNYC

April 24th, 2004, 10:44 AM

The only plans I heard for it were a cultural center, but that might just be wishful thinking on someone's part. The smokestacks do evoke an LIC feel, though.

NoyokA

April 24th, 2004, 10:49 AM

The only plans I heard for it were a cultural center, but that might just be wishful thinking on someone's part. The smokestacks do evoke an LIC feel, though.

Hopefully, they have true character, as does the Gantries and the Pepsi sign.

ZippyTheChimp

April 24th, 2004, 11:14 AM

http://www.pbase.com/image/21227499.jpg

OKoranjes

April 24th, 2004, 03:47 PM

the picture is good because it shows how awful the addition to the great historic original is... If they restore it surely they will knock that half off!

krulltime

April 24th, 2004, 06:47 PM

:D Yeah...this is going to be interesting!

ZippyTheChimp

April 30th, 2004, 04:56 PM

The Pepsi sign and midtown from the latest addition to Gantry Park.

http://www.pbase.com/image/28465552.jpg

billyblancoNYC

April 30th, 2004, 05:32 PM

The area looks just about cleared. I would love to see some construction soon. Anyone heard anything?

Gulcrapek

June 28th, 2004, 10:49 PM

Old design I guess

http://www.perspectivearts.com/images/qu02.gif

http://www.perspectivearts.com/p_arts_queens.htm

Johnnyboy

June 28th, 2004, 11:27 PM

I like this. :D we need more construction on at least mid rise buildings in the other boroughs of new york besides manhattan. hope more of this activity happens. better skyline.

krulltime

June 29th, 2004, 02:14 AM

:? What is that dome of glass I see in the rendering for anyway?

Bernie

June 29th, 2004, 07:28 AM

View from Gantry Park, June 24, 2004

http://www.entephoto.com/62404x.jpg

NoyokA

September 4th, 2004, 11:30 PM

Its seems as if they've reached an agreement for a taller 45 storey tower, instead of building a little more at lower heights. This tid-bit from the New New York Skyline:

Of these, the design by the Miami-based Arquitectonica is the furthest along. Dubbed Queens West, the project would transform 22 acres of abandoned waterfront warehouses into a playful mix of high-rise and low-rise buildings, commercial development and waterfront parks. The project's residential towers, some of which would reach 45 stories, are lined up along the esplanade. The design would fit nicely in a department at Target: hip, affordable versions of high-concept buildings. The waterfront towers are a variety of heights and sizes, like boxes playfully stacked on top of each other. What's most disturbing about the project, in fact, is not its scale but its décor. In a bizarre effort to break down the composition's visual scale, the buildings are decorated with crisscrossing patterns of window mullions in a variety of colors: burgundy, blue, green and yellow. Together, the surfaces look like Scottish plaid.

At a packed public forum at Citibank in Long Island City to update the Queens West Development project, residents were clearly ready to hold the developers’ feet to the fire about everything from the changing height of buildings to a perceived lack of friendliness toward dogs.
And though emotions never quite boiled over, there were some heated moments. The architects and officials involved with the development of the waterfront in Hunters Point, however, remained pragmatic in their responses to even the most emotionally tinged questions.
For instance, when one CityLights resident questioned why the heights of buildings on two parcels for the planned AvalonBay condominium development project had changed, the reply was simple.
“One thing that happens when you build a number of towers in one area is that certain buildings will block certain views from other buildings,” said Frederick Harris, senior vice president of AvalonBay Communities, Inc.
A group of residents from CityLights, the first building constructed as part of the planned 19-building waterfront development project in Long Island City, have complained that AvalonBay made revisions to the general project plan without public input. Some residents of the 42-story co-op are angered that their view of the skyline will be blocked.
“No matter what plan you put in place, there are certain residents who have had unobstructed views to the north, who will now have these views blocked,” Harris said.
AvalonBay’s is not the only project plan to change. Rockrose Development, which plans to build seven towers on a 21-acre site, has increased the heights of four of its buildings.
These changes range from 2 to 10 stories higher than had been planned. When Jon McMillan, director of planning for Rockrose, remarked that “some of the buildings rose in height,” he was met with exasperated laughter from the audience.
When he was questioned about why there had been such a dramatic increase in the height of the planned building on parcel 6, from 20 to 30 floors, McMillan explained that it was a matter of economics and market value.
“It is the most valuable building on the site because of its closeness to public transportation,” he said. “We have sunk about $100 million into it already.”
McMillan, after being further grilled about the buildings’ heights, said, “it’s all lower than CityLights.”
One resident questioned why Rockrose had not set aside affordable housing as part of its plans. McMillan said that unless the city asked for affordable housing and compensated the realtor, it would not be an option.
“But it will all be 25 percent less expensive than Manhattan,” he said.
Michael Plottel, senior architect for Empire State Development Corporation, defended the alterations to the designs, indicating “there’s a authority to make nonmaterial changes to the master plan.”
“Over time the thinking on planning has changed,” he said.
AvalonBay is conducting a voluntary cleanup on its parcels, a sensitive subject for residents in the area, after Rockrose recently had to halt its own voluntary cleanup of the old site of the Pepsi Cola bottling plant after an odor outbreak. The company contracted to conduct the cleanup, TRC Companies, has admitted mistakes.
“The (Department of Environmental Conservation) learned a valuable lesson from this community and it cost the architect and developer a lot of time and money,” said Community Board 2 Chairman Joseph Conley, warning AvalonBay to adhere to the guidelines for its cleanup.

The massive Queens West waterfront development project in Long Island City’s Hunters Point neighborhood is hailed as the future of the borough, as high-rise condominium towers are expected to lure young Manhattanites across the East River here.
But at the groundbreaking of a planned 70,000-square-foot, 80-unit housing facility for seniors on Thursday, those involved with bringing the project to fruition underscored the importance of recognizing the residents who lived in Long Island City long before the neighborhood’s redevelopment began. RiverView Gardens is a non-profit low-income housing facility for people 62 years and older, designed by New York Foundation for Senior Citizens.
Charles Gargano, chairman of Empire State Development Corporation, called the construction of the eight-story RiverView Gardens the beginning of the second wave of development for the waterfront project. Queens West Development Corp., a subsidiary of Empire State Development, is in charge of development.
“This is an exciting turning point for the citizens of Queens and particularly its elderly residents,” Gargano said.
The RiverView Gardens building will have a full-time social worker on staff, a cook and home attendants. Included in the facility will be a lounge, a large community room, a classroom and a work room for educational and social activities.
The one-bedroom apartments will be 540 square feet and will include a kitchen, living room and bathroom. Residents will also have access to a terrace that overlooks the East River and the Manhattan skyline.
Stephen Cooper, first vice chairman of Community Board 2, recalled that senior housing was one of the first issues talked about when officials started discussing the Queens West development project 20 years ago.
“It’s nice to know that as you get older you don’t have to leave New York City,” he said. He emphasized the need to accommodate the seniors in the area with bus routes, a medical facility and other necessary services.
“There has to be services so that seniors can enjoy their lives as much as their views,” Cooper added.
Terry Delis, principal of PS 78, located across the street from where RiverView Gardens is being constructed, indicated that the school will work in collaboration with the seniors on an “inter-generational project.”
“The children will learn about the history of the neighborhood from its original residents,” she said. “They will learn to respect all of the members of their community. We think this will be a wonderful, utopian community.”
City Councilman Eric Gioia said the construction of RiverView Gardens “renews the covenant between generations.”
“When they look out and see perhaps the greatest view in the world, they’ll know we have kept that promise,” he added.
The low-income provision requires the annual income of the seniors living at the facility be equal to or less than 50 percent of the median family income for the area. The building is designed for seniors not ill enough for a nursing home, but not well enough to live in a building without the services provided in RiverView Gardens.
Linda Hoffman, president of the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, was praised for leading the efforts to get the project off the ground. When she addressed the crowd, she was visibly emotional.
“RiverView Gardens is going to be the most magnificent building, with the most breathtaking views in the nation,” she said. “It surpasses any senior housing that (the U.S. Housing and Urban Development) is building in the nation.”
In a statement read by her chief of staff, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney noted that the RiverView Gardens building is the longest-funded, but unbuilt Section 202 low-income housing for the elderly in the country.
“Linda Hoffman had a dream and by sheer force of will and a lot of hard work she is on the verge of making it a reality,” Maloney’s statement read.
She added, “This project is off the drawing board because Linda got people excited about her vision.”

NewYorkYankee

November 27th, 2004, 10:27 PM

How tall will the senior building be?

NoyokA

November 27th, 2004, 11:39 PM

The Senior Building is the small building adjacently connected to the left of Avalon Riverview.
http://www.queenswest.org/pictures/avalonriverview.jpg

NewYorkYankee

November 27th, 2004, 11:41 PM

The Avalon is the prettier one, right? :lol: Whats that white thing on the right?

NoyokA

November 27th, 2004, 11:45 PM

The Avalon is the prettier one, right? Whats that white thing on the right?

Thank you Stern for the quick replies. Air filled tennis center, COOOL!! Ill have to visit that. Anyways...It is good to see that seniors dont have to leave NYC, I dont ever plan to leave after I graduate college. :D

JCMAN320

June 11th, 2005, 01:42 AM

Thats awesome with the Coca-Cola sign. It's like when they saved the Colgate clock here in Jersey City from that factory. Im glad they saved and awesome preservation job for Queens and cool looking development.

jiw40

June 11th, 2005, 08:31 PM

Hey Yankee,it's not a center for college seniors.It's for SENIOR CITIZENS.You know,older people.

pianoman11686

June 11th, 2005, 10:18 PM

I think what he meant was that by the time he finished going to college and graduate school, he'd already be a senior citizen.

NoyokA

June 11th, 2005, 10:28 PM

I'm pretty sure he meant that he like senior citizens love NYC, and now they have options so that they can stay in the city they love regardless of age and condition.

pianoman11686

June 11th, 2005, 10:34 PM

Isn't New York Yankee the guy from Tennessee who's starting school at Pace next year?

NoyokA

June 11th, 2005, 11:09 PM

Isn't New York Yankee the guy from Tennessee who's starting school at Pace next year?

Correct.

pianoman11686

June 11th, 2005, 11:20 PM

Okay...so how does that make him a senior citizen?

pianoman11686

June 11th, 2005, 11:23 PM

Nevermind, I get it. I misread your post thinking that you described New York Yankee as a senior citizen when you were simply saying that he likes New York, as do senior citizens. Just another example of how it's difficult to direct your emphasis in certain statements through typing.

NoyokA

June 11th, 2005, 11:31 PM

Nevermind, I get it. I misread your post thinking that you described New York Yankee as a senior citizen when you were simply saying that he likes New York, as do senior citizens. Just another example of how it's difficult to direct your emphasis in certain statements through typing.

I can understand that, I fixed my original post.

NoyokA

June 11th, 2005, 11:58 PM

Yeah I found that when I say things sarcasticly no one seems to know. Are there no senior citizen homes already in the city?

No, there's a few senior homes in each borough.

jiw40

June 11th, 2005, 11:58 PM

Of course there is.What we need to know though is how many of their residents attend college.

NoyokA

June 12th, 2005, 12:08 AM

I am a 15 year old senior citizen

Oxymoron.

NewYorkYankee

June 12th, 2005, 12:57 AM

WELL, glad to come in and read about myself. :) Anyways,Stern you are correct sir! I was saying its nice that senior citizens can stay in the city and not have to go to say, Long Island.

NoyokA

June 12th, 2005, 01:05 AM

WELL, glad to come in and read about myself. :) Anyways,Stern you are correct sir! I was saying its nice that senior citizens can stay in the city and not have to go to say, Long Island.

I think out of all the Senior citizen homes in NYC this is the nicest. Of course being young I want to feed off the energy of the city itself, but if I was a senior citizen I would choose this home in a heartbeat. The amenities are modern, the area is very quiet and middle class, the area has very good restaurants, is a 15 minute subway ride from the theatre district, and has a beautiful waterfront park a stroll away with perhaps the best view in the world.

BrooklynRider

June 12th, 2005, 03:51 AM

I'd rather be at "The Village at 46th & 10th" or Senior Living Option's 1 West End Ave.

I'm relatively young and making senior housing choices (are my priorities wrong? do I need a twink?)

Government officials and developers broke ground Thursday afternoon on the second phase of Gantry Plaza State Park on the edge of Long Island City overlooking the East River. The park is an integral part of the 74-acre Queens West development directly across the river from the United Nations, according to the Empire State Development Corporation. When completed, Queens West will have about 23 acres of public park amid its 20 buildings and about 10,000 apartment units. The second phase started Thursday will include 12 acres of parkland, a playing field and a 1.25-mile waterfront esplanade.

The story of Queens West, a 74-acre waterfront tract in Long Island City, is a tale of two halves.

The northern half of the site will soon see construction of seven more residential buildings that will add thousands of apartment units to an area just across the East River from Manhattan.

The southern half of the tract was supposed to be equally ambitious: Plans called for it to become one of the biggest commercial hubs in New York and – briefly – the site of the Olympic Village for the 2012 Summer Games.

But Mayor Michael Bloomberg's heavily touted bid for Olympic glory was eclipsed by a London fog, and the rezoning of a nearby area for heavy commercial left the future of the southern half of the parcel in doubt. So, what to do, then, with the remaining half of Queens West?

Make it like the northern half, apparently.

The Queens West Development Corporation, a city-state-Port Authority partnership, has hired the Weitzman Group, a Manhattan-based real estate consulting firm to evaluate the 31-acre parcel in the absence of large-scale commercial development. Weitzman is expected to publicize its study results by early autumn.

"There is a lot of interest by real estate people in the development of Queens West," said Alexander Federbush, president of the Queens West Development Corporation.

Federbush said he couldn't say which developers had approached the corporation about building in Queens West. Two already have, and one has plans to build in the northern half.

Rockrose Development already has plans to build seven residential buildings on the northern half that should add more than 3,000 units. The 522-unit City Lights, a co-op, as well as the 372-unit rental Avalon Riverview, opened in 1997 and 2003, respectively. Retail, parkland, and possibly an elementary school are expected to follow.

Rockrose plans to open the first of its seven buildings – a 31-story rental – by late 2006, according to Charles Singer, director of market research at Rockrose.

Media speculation this summer had one of the seven buildings becoming the largest condo in the city. Not so, said Singer. Instead, that idea has been scaled down into a 30-story tower.

The evolution of Queens West to a residential hub began with a groundbreaking in 1984 in pursuit of creating the fourth-largest commercial hub in the city after Midtown, Downtown Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. The original project plan called for more than 2 million square feet of commercial office space. That promise was never quite kept, as politics, economics and market shifts took their toll.

The area northeast of Queens West, around the transit stops of Queens Plaza and Court Square, was rezoned in 2001 to become a central business district for Queens, negating the need for it in nearby Queens West.

"Since the original general project plan," Federbush said, "the city has done a lot of rationalizing regarding where it wants its commercial hubs. With Queens Plaza rezoned and developing commercially, it didn't seem practical anymore to build commercially [in Queens West]."

The Weitzman Group study, at a public cost of around $400,000, will weigh in, then, on whether to develop the southern half of Queens West as all residential or as mixed-use, according to the development corporation.

And there are plenty of people waiting to act on its long-awaited formal conclusions.

With Rockrose, Court Square Two, redevelopment of the waterfront... this is ranking LIC with Manhattan!

shocka

November 2nd, 2005, 11:11 AM

Fantastic photo. Is that Citylights or Avalon?

With Rockrose, Court Square Two, redevelopment of the waterfront... this is ranking LIC with Manhattan!
ok that is citylights but i am a little confused about that picture... I have never noticed that thing stickin out of Citylights. You can see Avalon Riverview Peeping up on the right of the Citylights building.

NoyokA

November 2nd, 2005, 12:57 PM

ok that is citylights but i am a little confused about that picture... I have never noticed that thing stickin out of Citylights.

That thing sticking out of Citylights is actually a smoke stack in the background.

CARLOS

February 23rd, 2006, 04:08 PM

Thursday February 23, 2006
I took a stroll today thru Long Island City, Queens NYC today...construction is at a frenzy pace !!
There are multiple construction projects going on all over the neighborhood!!!
here are some samples!!!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01299.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01300.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01310.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01309.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01318.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01330.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01331.jpg

2 Square Court

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01329.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01312.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01301.jpg

tmg

February 24th, 2006, 11:08 PM

Thanks Carlos! Great pictures. Keep them coming.

CARLOS

February 25th, 2006, 08:47 AM

Thanks Carlos! Great pictures. Keep them coming.

Thanks....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01302.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01307.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01305.jpg

I kinda love small houses like this.... give it so much "character"... really don't want all of LIC to be "manhattanized"...??

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01315.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01328.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01316.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01322.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01324.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01325.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01327.jpg

ablarc

February 25th, 2006, 10:29 AM

Nice pictures, CARLOS --both the new stuff and the old. It's great to see all the new construction, and no doubt it's making LIC a more desirable place to live, but --gosh-- I wish it were better! Most of that new stuff is developed in much too large increments, and it relates montonously to the townscape and quite poorly to the street.

lofter1

February 25th, 2006, 11:48 AM

The shot of the yellow warehouse with the graffiti is fantastic :D

lofter1

February 25th, 2006, 11:59 AM

check out the detail ...

debris

February 25th, 2006, 04:12 PM

Ablarc, I'd agree with you in most cases, but I kinda like that LIC has no prevailing character. Its a Noah's Arc neighborhood: two brownstones, two townhouses, two skyscrapers, two elevated subways....

ablarc

February 25th, 2006, 04:16 PM

Ablarc, I'd agree with you in most cases, but I kinda like that LIC has no prevailing character. Its a Noah's Arc neighborhood: two brownstones, two townhouses, two skyscrapers, two elevated subways....
Oh, I agree with you, but lousy urbanism is lousy no matter where you put it.

pianoman11686

October 19th, 2006, 09:16 PM

New York Business.com (http://www.newyorkbusiness.com/news.cms?id=15039)

Port Authority sells Queens West land to NYC

by David Jones

October 19, 2006

The city agreed to buy 24 acres of undeveloped land Queens West waterfront site for $100 million, and plans to develop 5,000 housing units.

The city agreed to buy 24 acres of undeveloped land on the $2.8 billion Queens West waterfront site from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for $100 million.

The land will be used to develop 5,000 units of middle-income housing, designed for families making up to $145,000 annually. The city also plans to buy a privately-owned sites near Queens West to develop another 1,500 housing units, according to a statement from the mayor's office.

Queens West is a mixed-use development in Long Island City that includes co-operative apartments, housing for senior citizens, retail shops and parking. The development includes a 522-unit co-op building, a 435-unit rental apartment, an 80-apartment senior citizens residence and a 425-unit apartment building that opened in 2006.

The Port Authority is one of several government agencies behind the development of Queens West, which is managed by the Queens West Development Corp., a unit of the Empire State Development Corp.

Port Authority has invested $144 million of its original $190 million commitment. Under this agreement, the city will take over the remaining $46 million of the Port Authority's commitment.

The Port Authority will continue to get revenue from two buildings that were built in the early stages of the project.

The city plans to issue requests for proposal to after 90 days of due diligence, however construction on the new housing is not expected to begin for a couple of years.

COPYRIGHT 2006 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.

investordude

October 19th, 2006, 10:00 PM

Why don't they sell it to private sector? Is there a reason the government needs possession of the land?

lofter1

October 19th, 2006, 11:51 PM

Mayor Bloomberg is committed to building affordable housing -- something the private sector seems to have very little interest in developing these days:

Mayor Bloomberg and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Announce Agreement Paving Way for Major Mixed-Use, Middle-Income Housing Development at Queens West in Long Island City

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/
Thursday, October 19, 2006

Mayor Bloomberg and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Board of Commissioners today announced an agreement to transfer ownership of approximately 24 acres of land in the southern portion of Queens West from the Port Authority to the City of New York for a major, mixed-use, middle-income housing development in Long Island City. Up to 5,000 units of housing primarily designed to be affordable to families earning from $60,000 to $145,000 for a family of four is expected to be developed on the site.

Port Authority Authorizes Waterfront Land Sale to City for Creation of up to 5,000 Housing Units, Targeted Primarily to Middle Income Families, plus Retail Amenities and Open Space

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Board of Commissioners today announced an agreement to transfer ownership of approximately 24 acres of land in the southern portion of Queens West from the Port Authority to the City of New York for a major, mixed-use, middle-income housing development in Long Island City. Up to 5,000 units of housing primarily designed to be affordable to families earning from $60,000 to $145,000 for a family of four is expected to be developed on the site. The units will be part of Mayor Bloomberg's $7.5 billion New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing over ten years, the largest municipal affordable plan in the nation's history. The Port Authority Board of Commissioners authorized the property sale at its meeting today. The City has approximately 90 days to complete due diligence and documentation.

"The development of Queens West into a major affordable housing development with world-class open space and vibrant retail amenities will serve as an extraordinary component of our pursuit to create affordable housing throughout New York City and revitalize the waterfront in all five boroughs," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Middle-income families are facing housing affordability challenges as a result of New York's success, and we have to make strategic, long-term investments to ensure that New Yorkers of all incomes can work and live in our City. This development will build on New York's grand tradition of major middle-income communities, but updated for the 21st century. We will work quickly to turn this into homes for thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters, nurses and other moderate- and middle-income New Yorkers. I want to thank the Port Authority for its continued collaboration and support."

"The Queens West waterfront development has been an important investment for the region and its economic future for the past 21 years," said Port Authority Chairman Anthony R. Coscia. "This agreement will ensure that this project continues and is a win-win for the Port Authority, the City and the region. It will allow us to invest more dollars in our core transportation mission, and will provide the City with a key real estate asset that can be used to build much-needed affordable housing."

The City plans to develop a new site plan for the undeveloped southern portion of Queens West to allow for construction of a middle-income, mixed-use community including up to 5,000 residential units targeted to families earning between $60,000 and $145,000 for a family of four. The plan will also generate vibrant retail amenities, while maintaining the existing commitments to public open space and waterfront access. In exchange for the land and the Port Authority's other rights at the site, the City will pay the Port Authority $100 million and will fund the Port Authority's remaining obligations for infrastructure and related costs at the site, which are currently estimated to total $46 million. The Port Authority also will have the opportunity to participate in any future profits generated by the site and will continue to receive revenue from buildings to the north of the site, which were constructed in the first two stages of the project. In addition to the land being transferred from the Port Authority, the City will seek to acquire adjacent privately-owned sites to provide up to 1,500 additional housing units.

"This agreement presents a valuable opportunity to create a community that will affordably house middle-income families, the backbone of our City," said Deputy Mayor for Economic Development & Rebuilding Daniel L. Doctoroff. "In Queens West we have an opportunity to create a thriving, residential district which will both anchor and foster continued development in and around Long Island City."

"This transaction is an important milestone in the history of Queens West," said Port Authority Vice Chairman Charles A. Gargano. "It ensures that this parcel of prime real estate in Long Island City is fully built, and will provide the Port Authority with substantial revenue to make sure the region's economy continues to grow and its millions of residents and visitors continue to have a world-class transportation system for future generations."

"The Port Authority has been a proud partner in helping New York City realize its vision for this prime waterfront site," said Port Authority Executive Director Kenneth J. Ringler Jr. "Now that the Queens West project is well on its way to completion, we need to focus more attention on the multitude of transportation projects our region needs now."

"Today marks a significant step forward in our efforts to create a major affordable housing development on a stretch of waterfront that has gone underutilized for too long," said Housing (http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd) Commissioner Shaun Donovan. "The new Queens West will help realize the commitment to middle-income families that the Mayor made when he launched his expanded New Housing Marketplace Plan, which will provide housing for 500,000 New Yorkers - more than the entire population of Atlanta."

When Mayor Bloomberg announced the expansion of his New Housing Marketplace Plan in February 2006, he committed to a middle-income housing initiative designed to encourage moderate- and middle-income families to stay in New York City, while allowing the City's economy to continue to grow. The middle-income housing initiative which Mayor Bloomberg described as a "Mitchell Lama program for the 21st Century" will generate up to 22,000 units of housing for New York households earning between $60,000 and $145,000. In the eight months since announcing this initiative, the City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development is already working to develop several thousand units of middle income housing across the city - from Manhattan's Westside to the South Bronx to Brooklyn.

The Port Authority became a partner in the $2.8 billion Queens West project in 1984, following bi-state legislation authorizing it to undertake waterfront development projects in New York and New Jersey. The Port Authority's investments in the project helped pay for land acquisition, planning, infrastructure, design, and other associated costs. The first building, consisting of a 522-unit residential tower including co-op apartments, was completed and first occupied in 1997. In 2002, a second residential building was opened, consisting of 435 rental apartments, retail space and vehicle parking. In 2005, an adjacent 80-apartment senior citizen residence, sponsored and built by the Foundation for Senior Citizens with funding provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was built. This year, an additional 425-unit residential tower was opened for prospective tenants.

lofter1

October 20th, 2006, 12:46 AM

City Plans Middle-Income Project on Queens Waterfront

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/10/20/nyregion/20queens600.1.jpg
Uli Seit for The New York Times
Land along the East River in Queens would be the site of up to 5,000 rental apartments
for the middle class, under plans announced Thursday.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced plans yesterday to buy 24 acres of Queens waterfront property for a towering development, which would be the largest middle-income housing complex built in New York City in more than 30 years.

Under the proposal, the city would bring as many 5,000 new rental units to a largely industrial area of Long Island City, where chic restaurants are just beginning to appear amid low-slung factories and three-family homes.
The new apartments, Mr. Bloomberg said, would be for families of four earning between $60,000 and $145,000 a year, who would pay $1,200 to $2,500 a month in rent.

Though the ratio of middle-income apartments to market-rate units would depend on environmental studies and potential cleanup costs, city officials said they were hoping to make the entire complex affordable and to keep it that way for 40 years.

“Not only will it give birth to a new community that’s going encourage new growth in Long Island City, and complement our efforts to revive the city’s waterfront,” Mr. Bloomberg said, “it will also provide much needed housing for the real backbone of our city, our teachers, nurses, police officers.”

The mayor emphasized that the deal — in which the city purchased the land from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for about $146 million — was “a smart investment” that exemplified his administration’s plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of lower-cost housing over 10 years.

The mayor compared the proposed complex to the most ambitious previous efforts to create middle-class housing in New York: Starrett City, which added 5,888 new units to Brooklyn in 1974, and Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan, a sprawling set of 110 brick towers with 11,232 apartments that has been a working-class haven for six decades.

Indeed, the sale of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, across the East River from the new site, seemed to hover over the deal announced yesterday.

On Tuesday, Metropolitan Life, the owner of the Manhattan complexes, agreed to sell the property for $5.4 billion to a real estate firm, in a plan that could lead to the loss of many of the buildings’ rent-regulated units over the next few decades. Even as tenants pulled together a bid with support from the City Council, the mayor stayed on the sidelines, drawing rebukes from housing activists who questioned his dedication to affordability.

Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff had said it was a matter of efficient use of public dollars: preserving the historic units would have cost about $107,000 per unit. In contrast, he said yesterday, the units in the new Queens development would be built for about $54,000 each in city funds.

“So we can get two units here for every one there,” he said at the press conference announcing the deal, “plus we get a major increase in the housing stock.”

Mayor Bloomberg interjected, “You must remember that a lot of the housing units in Stuyvesant and Peter Cooper Village are affordable and will stay affordable for many, many years.”

He said the new development “really is a net plus to the city.” He said its location on the water, where it looks out on the United Nations and the Empire State Building, showed the city’s determination to weave affordable housing into areas that might otherwise have become enclaves for the wealthy.

“This is as good a piece of property as you will find,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

The city plans to complete the purchase within 90 days, develop a master plan for a mixed-use development including retail shops and parks, and then solicit bids from private builders, perhaps as early as next year.

Housing activists reacted mainly with praise, but also with measures of skepticism.

Some questioned the income limits, suggesting that they overshot the families in greatest need. But the larger issue seemed to be one of scope and emphasis.

Michael McKee, treasurer of the Tenants Political Action Committee, and Tom Waters, a housing analyst with the Community Service Society, repeated a longstanding complaint that new construction will never be enough to offset the loss of rental units that are rapidly moving from regulated to market rate.

A study in May by the Community Service Society found that between 1990 and 2005, nearly a quarter of the roughly 121,000 apartments built under federal and state subsidy programs dating from the 1960’s and 70’s left those programs. This year alone, by the authors’ count, New York City will lose more than 5,000 apartments for low- and middle-income families.

“This is a blind spot on the part of the mayor and the administration,” Mr. McKee said. “They are stubbornly refusing to recognize that they are taking one step forward, three steps back.”

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat who heads a committee of the State Legislature that oversees public authorities, also questioned whether the deal would make efficient use of the Port Authority’s land.

He said the sale price of about $29 a square foot was “infinitely less than what the market would bear.”

Yet for many in Queens, the project seemed to be welcome, and overdue.
The waterfront area known as Queens West, of which the land sold yesterday is a part, has been the subject of promised development since the early 1980’s. Had the city’s bid for the 2012 Olympic Games been accepted, the site would have been used for the Olympic Village. The new development would fill the fallow land just south of a handful of high-rise apartment buildings that have appeared only in the past few years.

“This is one more example of how Long Island City is in the midst of a renaissance,” said Councilman Eric Gioia, who represents Long Island City and lives in one of the buildings along the water. “For too long, our waterfront has been neglected and forgotten.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Strattonport

October 20th, 2006, 01:17 AM

Nice news! I'm only bugged about the lack of any sort of transportation into this. How are these people going to crowd onto the nearby 7 and G trains?

investordude

October 20th, 2006, 02:15 AM

I think your comment that its good except for subway improvements illustrates the problem with this deal. The Port Authority should have sought top dollar for this site and then used the proceeds to improve transit to it.

Its stupid to income restrict housing. Just build enough of it, and the income will restrict itself. I think its better than doing nothing, but the city would have been much better served by maximizing revenue with a sale to private investors.

antinimby

October 20th, 2006, 06:52 PM

This is both good news and potentially bad news.

The good part is that there will be more new and (somewhat) affordable housing in the city.

The bad part I can see is if they design it the way I think most large scale urban housing construction projects in this city is, then it would be terrible.

They tend to build towers with bland groundfloors surrounded by lots of open or green space. This does not make for a very lively or intimate neighborhood feel.

I'd much prefer they build these units sprinkled throughout the city. When they have a large tract of land to work with, they will most likely get the design all wrong.

This is an example of the wrong way of doing it:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/DSC01301.jpg

ramvid01

October 20th, 2006, 07:56 PM

I think it's too early to say the area is poorly designed considering that most of the area is made out of empty or lots that are under construction.

antinimby

October 20th, 2006, 10:36 PM

Do you have trouble reading?

When did I say the area the city just bought is poorly designed?

And if you're referring to the picture above, then yes it is poorly designed. That plaza doesn't look under construction to me.

What does the current area being mostly empty lots have to do with what I said?

panderson

October 21st, 2006, 04:18 AM

The waterfront area known as Queens West, of which the land sold yesterday is a part, has been the subject of promised development since the early 1980’s. Had the city’s bid for the 2012 Olympic Games been accepted, the site would have been used for the Olympic Village. The new development would fill the fallow land just south of a handful of high-rise apartment buildings that have appeared only in the past few years.

Here's some more great proof that the Bloomberg administration was just blowing smoke out its butt back when it was claiming the city "needed" the 2012 Olympics to spur development. A year later, we're getting new development on this site without the Olympics -- and whereas the city would have had to wait until after the Games were over to convert the Athletes Village into housing, this development will likely be built and occupied before 2012, at least in part.

Derek2k3

October 21st, 2006, 12:04 PM

The administration slated housing for this site regardless if we won the olympics. Now it will just take longer. I doubt the city is going to complete 5,000 units by 2012 and the design will probably be half assed to at most, one-third assed. To the right is what the city initially had in mind, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle. Hopefully the Morphosis proposal provided the city with an epiphany.

http://static.flickr.com/101/275321470_5500a90e8b_o.jpg

My friend at KPF told me only the 15 story portion will be built for now and the footprint of the tower will also include some other low-rises on the block. She gave me some cool renderings that I might post later.

Lastly, TEN Arquitectos updated their website and some new images of that 600-foot Queens Street Tower are posted. Five times better than the Costas' Atelier. However, being that this is New York, I expect it to slowly get wittled down to crap in the coming months/years/decades.

I doubt that, considering there are very few if any residents in the proximity of the Queens street project.

Derek2k3

October 21st, 2006, 12:44 PM

Well, I didn't really have Nimby's in mind, probably economics. It would be great to have something this nice built, but given our track record producing innovative towers, I'm always skeptical.

lofter1

October 21st, 2006, 01:06 PM

My friend at KPF told me only the 15 story portion will be built for now and the footprint of the tower will also include some other low-rises on the block. She gave me some cool renderings that I might post later.

Oh, yeah -- Please POST them ...

Lastly, TEN Arquitectos updated their website and some new images of that 600-foot Queens Street Tower

Gorgeous that one is ^^^

Citytect

October 21st, 2006, 05:05 PM

That Morphosis design is nice-looking, but it doesn't belong in NYC. I guess Morphosis wants to bring a little LA to the Big Apple. The design doesn't look city-friendly at all.

ablarc

October 21st, 2006, 05:15 PM

I doubt that, considering there are very few if any residents in the proximity of the Queens street project.
There don't have to be residents in the proximity. NIMBYs have the power to materialize out of thin air.

ramvid01

October 21st, 2006, 07:21 PM

That's true, but i think the area residents are more prodevelopment than anything, at least the smart ones lol.

Derek2k3

October 22nd, 2006, 02:55 AM

Please POST them ...

They're on my hard drive at school so I'll post them tomorrow evening.

In the mean time, also from TEN's website, there's a preliminary design for Sunnyside railyards. Looks like there are ideas to connect this to the recently announced 5000 unit, middle-income housing project on the waterfront.

Wow. A giant wall between the development and the rest of the Borough. That's a giant F___ You to the rest of Queens.

ablarc

October 22nd, 2006, 05:01 PM

^ Doesn't function as a wall or read as one except from an airplane.

ramvid01

October 22nd, 2006, 05:30 PM

It's more pleasing from some angles than others, but it's only a study, so nothing has been set in stone (or even approved), so no need to worry about it if you find it too displeasing.

BPC

October 22nd, 2006, 06:26 PM

Couldn't care less. But I don't live in Queens.

ablarc

October 22nd, 2006, 06:30 PM

^ Spoken like a true NIMBY. ;)

pianoman11686

October 22nd, 2006, 06:32 PM

Looks like something right out of Garvin's long-term plan for meeting the housing demand. But it does kind of have that walled-off appearance. We need to see more details of how things work at street level to make a better assessment.

In any case, it's better than towers in a park.

Wrightfan

October 24th, 2006, 02:09 PM

Here's some more great proof that the Bloomberg administration was just blowing smoke out its butt back when it was claiming the city "needed" the 2012 Olympics to spur development. A year later, we're getting new development on this site without the Olympics -- and whereas the city would have had to wait until after the Games were over to convert the Athletes Village into housing, this development will likely be built and occupied before 2012, at least in part.
TOUCHE! 2012 was another major and unneeded distraction!

kliq6

October 24th, 2006, 02:42 PM

LIC futures is as a hot rseidential place, ive been saying that for years. This is the Bloomberg admistration seeing the lining early enough to take advantage of it, good for them

Gotham

October 24th, 2006, 05:21 PM

Why would they want to wall off Queens West from the rest of Queens? Strange layout, but still pre-mature to make final judgement.

TREPYE

November 20th, 2006, 01:33 AM

This post may not belong here but I could not find the LIC office building development thread.

Have you guys seen the latest rendering for that tower going up next to the citicorp building in LIC??

(Pics from Jularc on SSP)
From the back looks like decent and promising piece of architecture, looks like its going to have some interesting curves, dimensions etc......

http://cgarchitect.com/user_artwork/CitiGroupinQueensNY.jpg

But from the front......

http://static.flickr.com/97/277802941_b310171bd6_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/88/277802943_6a609a4b99_o.jpg

Then they flatten the damn thing out. What the hell is that?? Can you get anymore tasteless?? Looks like they took a page out of that disgusting Goldman Sachs Tower in BPC.

krulltime

November 20th, 2006, 03:03 AM

^ There is already a thread for that.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5160

Those images has been posted aswell. ;)

http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=127003&postcount=360

ROSEMARIELIC

January 13th, 2007, 11:49 PM

We Are Starting To Move In To Our New Home!

Riverview Gardens Senior Housing, I Have Been Packed Since May, 2006:rolleyes:

ROSEMARIE MARTORANA:)

gradvmedusa

January 14th, 2007, 04:43 PM

It as if its (the office tower) turning it's back on Manhattan.

Peakrate212

January 16th, 2007, 04:13 PM

Has anyone been out there recently.. I am so upset by the absolutely awful parking garage at the second Avalon Bay Building......How in the world did that get approved. It looks like something out of the worst of the 1970s.

I would take a tower twice as tall without that! its a crime, really. it should be torn down asap.

antinimby

January 16th, 2007, 11:11 PM

Yes I agree.

Looking like 1970 Indianapolis.

LIC should strive to do better considering we're in 2007!

shocka

January 20th, 2007, 11:02 PM

Has anyone been out there recently.. I am so upset by the absolutely awful parking garage at the second Avalon Bay Building......How in the world did that get approved. It looks like something out of the worst of the 1970s.

I would take a tower twice as tall without that! its a crime, really. it should be torn down asap.

Do you have pictures about what you are talking about. I go by the area quiet often and I find nothing wrong with the new Avalon Tower. I am appaled that Rockrose woudl build the EastCoast Tower w/o a Garage at all.... that is a disgrace.

IMO.. LIC appeals to those who love Manhattan but would prefer to have a car and any building that has a parking facility is far appreciated then one without.

ablarc

January 20th, 2007, 11:09 PM

LIC should strive to do better considering we're in 2007! ...
... and the further along we go in time the higher our standards get.

antinimby

January 20th, 2007, 11:56 PM

Well, theoretically we should because we can learn from the mistakes of the past.

Many of these urban planning/design mistakes are not obsure or difficult to see.

They are everywhere, in just about every city but yet it seems like the very people in charge of creating the policies, planning the layout, designing the buildings, etc. are totally oblivious to those past mistakes.

Meanwhile, lay people (except you 'cause that's your profession) on this forum understands it very well.

Go figure.

sfenn1117

January 21st, 2007, 02:34 AM

Do you have pictures about what you are talking about. I go by the area quiet often and I find nothing wrong with the new Avalon Tower. I am appaled that Rockrose woudl build the EastCoast Tower w/o a Garage at all.... that is a disgrace.

IMO.. LIC appeals to those who love Manhattan but would prefer to have a car and any building that has a parking facility is far appreciated then one without.

When I visited Chicago, I noticed virtually all new construction had above ground parking garages....some up to 10 stories. However, most did it in a nice way, the facade of the building extended to the parking garage, with retail on the ground floor. The avalon does neither. Take away the tower and it could be in any downtown, USA.

And the tower itself is abysmal at best. Horrific facade. I would go as far to say depressing...and cheap.

Peakrate212

January 21st, 2007, 07:38 PM

Do you have pictures about what you are talking about. I go by the area quiet often and I find nothing wrong with the new Avalon Tower. I am appaled that Rockrose woudl build the EastCoast Tower w/o a Garage at all.... that is a disgrace.

IMO.. LIC appeals to those who love Manhattan but would prefer to have a car and any building that has a parking facility is far appreciated then one without.

I do not have pictures,,,,,,,,but I am sure someone who post this urban crime.....Are you really appalled by no parking at Rockrose? The location is 5 minutes on the 7 train to Grand Central, no car is needed. and whatever happened the underground parking?

Avalon's parking looks scarely like the City lot in LIC at Queens Plaza where Tishman is planning Gotham Center. Both the new and the old should be torn down.

kyle

January 22nd, 2007, 03:13 PM

The 2nd Rockrose building will have a HGE gargage...more tha making up for one left out of the first. They didn't want to waste prime waterfront site/building with a gargage.

Additionally, I believe the 3rd Rockrose building (the condo) will have parking.

And the next 4 Rockrose buildings haven't been designed yet...they just use generic buildings in the mock-up in the Rockrose lobby model. So they could have a ton of parking too, but no one knows yet.

antinimby

January 22nd, 2007, 05:13 PM

Do you have pictures about what you are talking about.Go over to the LIC thread to see pictures and links to more pictures.

krulltime

January 26th, 2007, 03:02 AM

Growing Skyline...

January 24, 2007:

http://www.pbase.com/image/73559681.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/73559654.jpg

ablarc

January 26th, 2007, 08:43 PM

Well, theoretically we should because we can learn from the mistakes of the past.

Many of these urban planning/design mistakes are not obsure or difficult to see.

They are everywhere, in just about every city but yet it seems like the very people in charge of creating the policies, planning the layout, designing the buildings, etc. are totally oblivious to those past mistakes.

Meanwhile, lay people (except you 'cause that's your profession) on this forum understands it very well.

Go figure.
Theories are nearly immortal. They have the power to outlive contradicting observations.

Professional theories are especially durable, because they're taught in schools as truth. Folks (or their parents) have paid good tuition money to acquire these theories.

CMANDALA

January 26th, 2007, 09:04 PM

Looking north from Borden Avenue, 1/24/07

antinimby

January 27th, 2007, 02:14 AM

Jersey City's skyline blows Queens' out of the water.

http://webfiles.uci.edu/cfagan/ssp/nyc07/IMG_5028.jpg
by Upward @ ssp

http://www.pbase.com/image/73559681.jpg

sfenn1117

January 27th, 2007, 02:20 AM

For now, not forever.

antinimby

January 27th, 2007, 02:28 AM

Maybe it is forever.

Jersey City's a growing boy, too. ;)

And they've got one more thing going for them: less NIMBYism.

Peakrate212

January 27th, 2007, 12:13 PM

Theories are nearly immortal. They have the power to outlive contradicting observations.

Professional theories are especially durable, because they're taught in schools as truth. Folks (or their parents) have paid good tuition money to acquire these theories.

someone please post pics of the new Avalon Garage. I do not think there will be any debate that it is the worst.

clubBR

January 30th, 2007, 01:32 PM

Where does Hunters Points and its luxury developments end? (to the north)
Have they reached Queens Plaza? Also, what are the borders to the east? Does anyone have any maps that show specific buildings and streets and their boundaries? The reason I ask is, I would like to start a business in the area and would like to know which specific streets in the area are "taken" by corporations and which are still on the market (affordable). Along Jackson Ave and Vernon Blvd are the areas of choice. But not limited to. Thanks

Peakrate212

January 30th, 2007, 05:24 PM

Hunter's point has NOT connected yet with Queens Plaza......if its retail, go for Vernon right behind the waterfront.

clubBR

January 30th, 2007, 09:22 PM

I see. Thanks peak!

Peakrate212

January 31st, 2007, 01:02 AM

Vernon is the "main drag".

Jackson is up and coming, but with limited walkers......but much more cars.

Peakrate212

March 6th, 2007, 10:17 PM

Any news on that discusting Avalon Bay garage building?

I saw in Miami beach a city parking garage that was covered with plants, greenery, etc.

maybe they can do that there..........but i doubt it ......Avalon Bay just takes from New York and gives back ugly.

ZippyTheChimp

March 7th, 2007, 12:17 AM

The second Avalon is an ugly mess.

The brick veneer is dull and lifeless; and there's those floorplates.
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/765/queenswest03ctn8.th.jpg (http://img263.imageshack.us/my.php?image=queenswest03ctn8.jpg)

It's not the only garage along 5th St. Behind CityLights.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/2601/queenswest04clb0.th.jpg (http://img187.imageshack.us/my.php?image=queenswest04clb0.jpg) http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/9679/queenswest05cgu6.th.jpg (http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=queenswest05cgu6.jpg)

Wow. Terrible. That garage is just completely oblivious to anything on the street. The exposed floorplate is just insult to injury. Yuck. My only consolation is that the brick seems to be beige, I thought it was grey. Not that it makes any diffeence.

Peakrate212

March 12th, 2007, 10:33 AM

Truly unbelieavable that this garage got City approval.....and isnt this actually New York State land that its built on?

Where is the outcry against this ugly assault?

Give me extra height in a great building anyday.....the Mayor of Jersey City got it right when he told the developers they would only get approval if they hired a starchitect. Result? JC is getting a Rem Koolhaus building that will be amazing.... and we get this.

Alonzo-ny

March 12th, 2007, 02:36 PM

^interesting, got a link or images?

ZippyTheChimp

March 12th, 2007, 03:02 PM

http://jclist.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=97749

http://www.archpaper.com/news/2007_0226.htm

antinimby

March 12th, 2007, 03:04 PM

Give me extra height in a great building anyday.....the Mayor of Jersey City got it right when he told the developers they would only get approval if they hired a starchitect. Result? JC is getting a Rem Koolhaus building that will be amazing.... and we get this.I have no doubt that an unusual looking design like Koolhaus' would have been widely derided if it was proposed in this city.

Eyesore! Out-of-scale! Destroying the character of the neighborhood! Sticking out like a sore thumb!

Let's face it, this city is getting exactly the kind of architecture it really wants and deserves.

macreator

March 12th, 2007, 03:54 PM

Am I the only one that finds the Rem Koolhaas building extremely ugly? Sure, it's different. But all I see are mediocre boxes stacked on top of each other. If this were proposed in NYC, for once I'd be happy about NIMBY's.

Alonzo-ny

March 12th, 2007, 05:46 PM

Not to bad, and im not a big fan of koolhaas i hate the museum complex in (nashville?) but i wouldnt mind if this building was built in the city.

http://origin.observer.com/files/imagecache/article/files/queens-west_042408.jpg NYCEDC
A massing of the planned Hunter's Point South

As if there weren’t enough affordable (http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2008/03/willets-point-missing-affordable.html) housing (http://www.observer.com/2008/human-chain-will-stretch-across-harlem-saturday) fights (http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/9/31_09_fed_cash_crunch.html)around the city, it’s probably time to add another to the list. In Long Island City, at the confluence of Newtown Creek and the East River, the city is at the start of the public review process for a major planned housing complex of mostly middle-income residents called Hunter’s Point South (http://www.nycedc.com/Web/AboutUs/OurProjects/CurrentProjects/HuntersPointSouth.htm) (a.k.a. Queens West).

Tonight, the fun kicks off at a Community Board 2 hearing in Queens, where, among other issues, we’re willing to bet that people want more affordable housing than is presented in the plan.

The city-led initiative calls for 5,000 apartments, with about 3,000 of them to be aimed at middle-income households (defined in this instance as families of four making up to about $145,000 a year), with the other 2,000 to be market rate.

The plan, which was announced as a large middle-income project in 2006, is facing criticism from affordable housing advocates who want the income targets lowered.

“We’re looking for at least half to be” available to low- and moderate-income residents, said Hannah Weinstock, a coordinator with Queens Community House and Queens for Affordable Housing.

uh, antinimby, i live half a mile away in LIC. i want a $500 million "community benefits package" and 20,000 guaranteed jobs over 2 years, and my councilman backs me.

otherwise, we'll just sit on the abandoned warehouses and old power plants that are here now for another 50 years. take that!

Alonzo-ny

April 24th, 2008, 09:49 PM

Not funny because its true in many cases.

BrooklynLove

April 25th, 2008, 07:39 AM

AN - there isn't anything close to the tudor city et al resident armada in this area. you can probably break this down into 2 groups:

1) the long time pre late 90s onward development residential community that fights everything (admitedly rightfully so in several instances) and gets rolled over on any of their significant resistance points (i'm being a realist, not trying to insult); and

2) the recent late 90s onward crowd that doesn't want to lose their views, thinks affordable housing will hurt the value of their overpriced condos, or generally are afraid of "poor" people.

at the end of the day i don't expect to see the direction of this development receive much influence from community concerns. the project is more likely to be subject to more general factors - fiscal issues, political bickering, etc - that affect all govt interest city projects of this nature and scale.

antinimby

April 25th, 2008, 05:47 PM

You don't need many residents living nearby (eventhough there are), you just need a community board to chime in.

Every part of this city, no matter if there are people living in them or not is part of some community board and you know what position they usually take in these matters.

BrooklynLove

April 29th, 2008, 08:34 AM

sure. my point was that over the past 10-15 yrs, the community board in hunters point, while active, hasn't succeeded in blocking or significantly impacting the large scale waterfront developments.

just walk around the area west of vernon and its not hard to tell who got their way.

brianac

August 18th, 2008, 07:56 PM

Plans For Queens West Megadevelopment Move Forward

by Gabby Warshawer | August 18, 2008

http://www.observer.com/files/imagecache/article/files/queenswest.jpg NYCEDC
The city's draft site plan for the project

Last Wednesday the city held public hearings on three huge land-use plans, but only two of those were widely reported (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/nyregion/14rezone.html) upon: the rezoning of the Lower East Side and the redevelopment of Willets Point. The third hearing concerned Hunters Point South (formerly known as "Queens West") and the development there of 5,000 units of housing, 60 percent of which, according to WNYC (http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/105890), would be set aside for residents who earn between $55,000 and $158,000 a year.

The massive project is on the 24-acre Long Island City land where the Olympic Village would have been built if New York won its bid for the 2012 Olympics. When plans for Hunters Point South were first announced a couple years ago, the city said all of the housing would be set aside for middle-income earners, but it has since changed its vision (http://beta.therealdeal.com/articles/8422) for the site to allow for the construction of market-rate units.

Meanwhile, a deal (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/nyregion/16west.html?ex=1181620800&en=7cebb41f8dfd2773&ei=5070) that would have given the Real Estate Board of New York (http://www.rebny.com/) (REBNY) a large measure of control over the development remains largely theoretical, according to REBNY president Steven Spinola.

"We're advising the city on the site as they bring it through ULURP," says Spinola. "We don't know how active a role they want us to play in the development, but right now we only have an advisory role, and it may continue to be just advisory. The city is talking amongst themselves about how to bring in the construction of the first phase."

The City Planning Commission is expected to vote on the proposal next month, according to a Planning spokesperson, and after that it would head to the City Council for approval.

Pretentious and pointless: the very definition of aesthetic illiteracy.

Every gesture here is meaningless.

oquatanginwan

April 11th, 2011, 10:49 PM

Doesn't BPC look better and better compared to the rest of these major development projects?

lofter1

April 11th, 2011, 11:56 PM

And London looks like Heaven.

econ_tim

April 16th, 2011, 03:31 PM

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5264/5624558181_0440ba8432_b.jpg

bigchet

April 16th, 2011, 07:03 PM

Come on this section of Queens has always been a disgusting shit hole. These projects are wonderful, best thing to have happened over there.

RoldanTTLB

April 17th, 2011, 04:14 PM

As someone who has come as close to living there as signing a lease, I can see the appeal to the waterfront. Additionally, we're talking about a set of buildings that expanded the street grid, separated park space from the buildings in a really solid way, and has take the place of a variety of derelict factories. I'll sit and try to give a decent write up about all the ways that this area is great. It may not be architecturally spectacular or unique, but it is really solid infill.

Also, glass is on the first few floors of the next tower and foundations are nearly in for the next one after. I was driving across the 59th st bridge, though, so I couldn't take photos.

ZippyTheChimp

September 2nd, 2013, 08:41 PM

http://imageshack.us/a/img27/2961/sdh1.jpg

Balconyville

http://imageshack.us/a/img690/5663/n864.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img163/345/azu5.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img837/3329/nlqm.jpg

stache

September 2nd, 2013, 09:50 PM

I took the #7 train in yesterday. Parts of LIC are starting to look like Manhattan.

Derek2k3

September 2nd, 2013, 11:32 PM

Ending on a banal note. At least real public housing projects have vibrant inhabitants.